CAIRO: A Cairo Criminal Court sentenced former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly to 12 years in prison for money laundering. The court also dismissed him from his previous position along with the forfeiture of funds seized to convict him of “profiting from his job and abusing of power and determined damage to public money and its seizure.” Adly faces other charges by the Public Prosecutor on the events that took place on January 28, known as the “Day of Anger” in Cairo and other major cities that saw protesters march in the streets in massive numbers, and the police, who used violence in an attempt to subdue them. Those charges include the killing of demonstrators “deliberately in conjunction with others, attempted murder, damaging public and private property, damaging the economic status of the country, creating a security vacuum, spreading chaos and disturbing peace and security and intimidating citizens.” According to Egyptian reports, the court session began Thursday morning, with the absence of all members of the defense, and took only five minutes in which Court Chancellor Mohamady Qonsowa proved the presence of al-Adly and then ended the session with the verdict. The details of the case goes back to February 12 when the Public Prosecution received notification from the Unit for Combating Money Laundering that it has been notified by a bank that partners in the contracting companies who deposited the amount of 4.05 million Egyptian pounds in the account of Adly, which did not fit with the usual movement of and the nature of his personal account with the bank. Investigations then revealed that the Interior Ministry had previously entrusted the company of the person who paid the deposit to establish some apartment buildings in a number projects of its own. Later, this person purchased a piece of land dedicated to Adly in the New Cairo district and deposited its value in his personal account in a bank. And after this deal, the Interior Ministry re-assigned the implementation of other operations to the same person who bought the land. The police imposed a security cordon around the court amid a large crowd of journalists and correspondents and three armored vehicles were seen stopping at the main door of the court, with Adly was in one of them. In accordance with security instructions, journalists entered the courtroom through the back door with no cameras and non-journalists were not allowed to enter. BM
